The search for signs of life on planets, moons and other celestial bodies in our solar system is one of NASA's top objectives. That effort has the agency focusing intently on one of Earth's neighbors. Illinois Public Radio's Jason Parrott reports.

WSIU's Brad Palmer sat down with Roberto Barrios, an associate professor of anthropology at SIU-C and co-chair of the Risk and Disasters Topical Interest Group in the Society for Applied Anthropology. He is an expert in post-disaster reconstruction and conducted field research in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

WSIU's Jennifer Fuller talks with Greg Guzik, Director of the Louisiana Space Grant Consortium, Delgado Community College Associate Physics Professor Joanna Rivers, and SIU Eclipse Committee Coordinator Bob Baer about the test launch of a special balloon that will track the 2017 Solar Eclipse in Carbondale.

With the building awareness of the upcoming total solar eclipse, award-winning journalist, author and former NPR correspondent David Baron feels it is important to learn about a total solar eclipse which caused similar excitement in 1878 in the American West. In his new book titled "American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race To Catch The Shadow Of The Moon and Win The Glory Of The Moon", Baron tells a fascinating story of a diverse group who witnessed the total solar eclipse from the Rocky Mountains. Among the group involved in this viewing, famed Inventor Thomas Edison.

Consumer rights groups in Illinois are leading the opposition to proposals before the state legislature that they say could end traditional landline phone service. They claim AT&T wants to shift customers to more expensive plans. But the telecommunications company says that conclusion is not accurate.

If you were outside in the Midwest at around 1:30 local time this morning, you might have received quite a shock.

A meteor streaked across the sky in a vivid, bright green flash. It set off sonic booms that were loud enough to shake houses in east-central Wisconsin, as National Weather Service meteorologist Jeff Last tells The Two-Way.

A new study by the John Muir Project shows that fire does important ecological work in forests and it may be time to re-think our federal policy on logging and forest fire suppression. Chad Hanson is a forest fire ecologist and author of the book – The Ecological Importance of Mixed Severity Fires. In this edition of In The Author's Voice, WSIU's Jeff Williams talks with Hanson about the study’s findings and his work as a forest fire ecologist.

Have you ever wondered what's inside toothpaste? Or nail polish? Or dry erase markers? Well, MIT trained chemist and science Educator George Zaidan has. Ingredients, The Stuff Inside Your Stuff takes a closer look at the science behind everyday things. WSIU's Jeff Williams talked with Zaidan about the series that is featured on National Geographic's YouTube channel.

You can watch this season's episodes of Ingredients, The Stuff Inside Your Stuffhere.

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2016 has been awarded to three theoretical researchers for their insights into the odd behavior of matter in unusual phases, like superconductors, superfluid films and some kinds of magnets.

David J. Thouless receives half the prize, and Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz share the other half. All three used mathematics to explain the the properties of matter in certain states.

People in much of the country are familiar with ethanol, a type of biofuel made from corn that is added to gasoline.

But many may not know that it is also possible to make biofuel from bacteria like e-coli. That could change, now that engineers at Washington University have found a more cost-effective way to make fuel from bacteria.

Gayle Bentley, a doctoral student in the Department of Energy, Environment and Chemical Engineering at Wash U, has discovered how to change an enzyme in some types of bacteria so that it produces compounds that act like the ones in petroleum. Bentley recently published her findings in the journal Metabolic Engineering.